Outbound

Learn about reviewing internal projects to release as open source and best practices to managing repositories and their communities.

How a Repository Becomes Published

To responsibly and safely release an open source repository publicly (or outbounding), here is our full outbound release process to ensure Federal requirements and guidelines, as well as industry best practices are being followed:

How a Repository Becomes Published Checklist: https://dsacms.github.io/repo-scaffolder/#repo-to-project

1. Identify your project's maturity model tier

Our maturity model framework is designed to evaluate and categorize open source repositories based on their composition and goals. This framework consists of five tiers, each representing different stages of a project's development practices, collaboration scope, community engagement, and governance structure.

Learn more in our Maturity Model Guide

2. Set up your repository

There are various ways to set up your repository to include required files and information:

• Create a new repository using repository templates OR
• Create a new repository by running cookiecutter OR
• Add files to an existing repository using repolinter OR
• Add files to an existing repository by running cookiecutter

Learn more in our Repository Template and Linters Guide

3. Review your repository using the outbound review checklists

Follow the outbound checklist, containing our review process to approve CMS-developed software to be released as open source:

1. Pre-Requisites
2. Benefits
3. Risks
4. Code Review
5. Code Analysis
6. Review Licensing
7. Repository Hygiene
8. Metadata
9. Sign-off
10. Flip the Switch!

Learn more in our Outbound Checklists Guide

4. Release as open source

After completing the steps above, the project is ready! Release to the public as an open source project

Learn more in our repo-scaffolder landing page